Prior studies have documented several components of information technology. For instance, Perez-Lopez and Alegre (2012) measure IT from three dimensions including IT knowledge, IT operations and IT infrastructure. Kim and Lee (2005) measured IT from two dimensions including IT application usage and End-user. Such view supported by Kim and Lee (2006), who divided components of IT into IT application usage and End-user. IT application include Internet based network systems, groupware systems, intranets, databases, electronic data- management systems, and knowledge-management information systems, and End-user, on the other hand, reflect to the degree to which end-user ease is a focus of information system development. Regardless of the technology, IT system and software developers must create user-friendly products that promote their acceptance and use.
Gold et al. (2001) studied IT as dimension addresses the technology-enabled ties that exist within the firm (Leonard, 1995, Brown and Duguid, 1998, Davenport and Klahr, 1998, Davenport and Prusak, 1998, Leonard and Sensiper, 1998, Teece, 1998). Gold et al. (2001) also observed that the technological dimensions that are part of effective knowledge
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management include business intelligence, collaboration, distributed learning, knowledge discovery, knowledge mapping, opportunity generation, as well as security (Leonard, 1995; Grant, 1996). Van den Hooff and Huysman (2009) supported this view by using ICT infrastructure as a major construct of IT. The technical infrastructure includes the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to aid in the exchange of knowledge.
Bharadwaj (2000) studied IT as three types including IT infrastructure, Human IT resources and IT-enabled intangible resources. This perspective is also mirrored by Jean et al. (2008), who contends that IT can be viewed as IT infrastructure, Human IT resources and IT-enabled intangible resources. IT infrastructure includes electronic integration. Human IT resources, in contrast, including technical skills and managerial skills have been regarded as important IT. Technical IT resources refer to programming, systems analysis and design, etc. Managerial skills refer to collaboration with business units, project management and leadership skills. IT- enabled intangible resources, on the other hand, described as customer orientation, knowledge assets and synergy. Fernández-Mesa et al. (2014) viewed IT as IT knowledge, IT operations and IT objects. IT knowledge is the degree to which a company has a body of technical knowledge about objects, such as computer systems; second, IT operations represent the extent to which a firm utilises IT to manage market and customer information; third, IT objects include elements such as computer-based hardware, software and support personnel. This viewed supported by other researchers (e.g., Perez-Lopez and Alegre, 2012; Perez-Lopez and Junquera, 2013; Mishra et al., 2013)
Some researchers have adopted electronic or virtual integration as a key IT resource. Kim et al. (2006), for example, conceptualise applied technological innovation, administrative innovation and inter firm systems integration as three key IT resources. Similarly, Arun et al. (2006) defined IT integration capability as a key IT resource. Other authors (e.g., Kim and
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Umanath, 2005; Wang et al., 2006; Kim and Mahoney, 2006; Jean, 2007) all studied IT through electronic integration. Rai et al. (2006), on the other hand, saw IT infrastructure integration as element to represent IT. Sanders (2005) and Wu et al. (2006) can be viewed IT as IT alignment. Kim et al. (2005) stated that there are two sub-elements of IT: electronic coordination, electronic monitoring while other researchers measured IT from IT advancement prospective. Wagner et al. (2014), in contrast, focused on social media affordances to represent IT. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) defined social media as “internet- based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content” (p. 62). Kietzmann et al. (2011) stated that “social media employ mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms via which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content” (p. 241).
Moreover, Garrison et al. (2015) examined IT from three elements including; managerial IT capability, IT technical capability and relational IT capability. Managerial IT capability is defined as the extent to which IT managers have the necessary business acumen and technical skills to foresee emerging technologies and leverage them effectively in the alignment of business processes with organisational goals. IT technical capability refers to various features or aspects of a firm’s IT abilities. For example, technical capability may represent the physical assets (e.g., computers, network equipment, and databases) that provide a firm with functionality in terms of its accessibility and range of shared information. Relational IT capability includes relation-specific assets, knowledge sharing routines, complementary resources and effective governance.
Other scholars explained that IT consists of three elements including managerial IT skills, technical IT skills and IT infrastructure (Mata, et al., 1995; Byrd and Turner, 2001; Dehning and Stratopoulos, 2003). Ho et al. (2011) and Dixit and Panigrahi (2014) considered annual
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IT investment and accumulated IT stock as a major construct of IT. Annual IT investment includes hardware, software, and costs related to maintenance, personnel, and training (Chari et al., 2008; Kobelsky et al., 2008). IT stock consists of accumulated hardware capital and the capitalised values of IT labour spending ( Hitt and Brynjolfsson, 1996; Dewan et al., 2007). Such view supported by Dewan and Ren (2011), who measure IT investment includes hardware, software, and costs concerning maintenance, personnel, and training.
Additionally, Zhang et al. (2011) measured information technology form three elements including ICT investment, ICT usage and ICT capability. Lopez-Nicolas and Soto-Acosta (2010) discussed IT use orientations through ICT informative orientation, ICT communicative orientation, and ICT workflow orientation. In ICT, informative orientation, technologies in a company are mainly employed to provide and distribute corporate or commercial information to diverse stakeholders (Huzingh, 2000). In this sense, ICT can be used as a corporate channel for information dissemination and data access across functional boundaries and organisational levels (Bafoutsou and Mentzas, 2002). Therefore, ICT informative orientation is defined as the use of ICT to provide one-way company electronic information directed to one or more stakeholders. ICT communicative orientation, besides allowing cost reduction in comparison to traditional communication tools, offers a unique and integrated opportunity for interacting with several business agents (both internal and external to the organisation). In this scenario, all these ICTs facilitate the exchange of information, collaboration and the possibility of establishing close relationships (Kalakota and Robinson, 2000). Thus, ICT communicative orientation is defined as the use of ICT for two way information exchange. In the new economy, work has shifted from the creation of tangible goods to the flow of information through the value chain (Basu and Kumar, 2002). The establishment and development of workflow technologies has played a fundamental role in this transition. ICTs, and especially Web technologies, provide great opportunities for the
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automation of processes (Fischer, 2004). Thus, ICT workflow orientation involves the establishment of predefined electronic processes through corporate technologies.
Drawing upon above discussion, the framework offered by Van den Hooff and Huysman (2009), is adopted for the aim of identifying its dimensions. These dimensions of IT seem more appropriate for this research since the encompass not only the internet based network systems, groupware systems, intranets, databases, electronic data-management systems, and knowledge-management information systems (IT application), but also the degree to which end-user ease is a focus of information system development. Regardless of the technology, IT system and software developers must create user-friendly products that promote their acceptance and use (End-user focus). Therefore, this framework have been selected because of their comprehensiveness.